(Newser)
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The man who kidnapped and beheaded America’s Most Wanted host John Walsh’s son in 1981 has been identified, CNN reports. “Ottis Toole was the abductor and murderer of Adam Walsh,” Florida police said today. Toole, long suspected of the crime, died in prison in 1996. “That journey is over,” Walsh said of the search that drove him to join the show in 1988.

“Evidence (new and old) proves beyond a doubt that if Toole were alive today, he’d be charged and convicted of abducting and killing Adam,” a spokesperson for Walsh said. Toole twice confessed to the crime, but was never charged because police could not verify the confessions, TMZ reports. Adam Walsh’s head was found in a Florida canal, but his body was never located.